PHNOM PENH, Dec 18, 2000 - A US tourist has been charged with the rape
and indecent assault of a child prostitute in Cambodia in a rare instance of the courts
here showing a willingness to tackle such a case, officials said Monday.

A Phnom Penh court charged James Curtis Parks, 57, from Hawaii, with the rape of a
15-year-old girl in a hotel room, a charge he denied saying he was impotent and had been
teaching meditation when police arrived.

"I am a good man. I came here to teach meditation, English and photography. I
have been helping her," Parks, a freelance photographer, told reporters who
visited his jail cell Monday where he can be held for up to six months pending trial.
"How can I have sex with her? I have been unable to have an erection for seven
years," he added.

However, police and court officials questioned why the pair were naked when the hotel room
was raided on Wednesday last week. "We charged him with rape and indecent
assault late Friday," said Phnom Penh's deputy municipal court prosecutor Ngeth
Sarath. "I don't know if this is the first such case, but I don't remember any
others, so it is quite rare," he said.

A Cambodian woman who allegedly acted as a pimp was also charged with debauchery. If
convicted, Parks faces a maximum 10 years in jail, while the woman whose charge also
relates to an offence of human trafficking faces 10 to 20 years. The case follows
the sentencing in November of British teacher John Keeler, 55, to three years in a
Cambodian jail for making a video of four girls ranging from eight to 10 years old lifting
their dresses and fondling themselves.

Rights workers said they hoped that case marked a turning point in Cambodia, where lax
laws and an unwillingness to disrupt tourism have seen the country develop a reputation as
a haven for foreign paedophiles.

There is no legal age of consent defined in Cambodian law, but indecent or sexual assault
is punishable by one to three years in
jail. That sentence is doubled if the person assaulted is under the age of 16,
according to United Nations legal experts here.
Rape, although rarely prosecuted, is punishable by five to 10 years with no age issues
involved. Rights groups and the UN's protection and monitoring unit here are
currently trying to have minors defined as under the age of 18 in line with international
conventions on the rights of children. Current legislation dates back to the early 1990s
when Cambodia was administered by a UN transitional authority.

A leading child advocacy group said the court had initially been reluctant to charge Parks
as the girl confessed to being a prostitute and had been paid 30 dollars for sex.
"The court did not want to charge the man because they said the girl was not a virgin
and had not been forced into sex. But under pressure from us they have at least charged
him with rape and indecent assault," said Yim Po, chairman of the Cambodian centre
for the protection of children's rights. He said the girl was now in the centre's
care and would be taught some basic reading, writing and life skills and helped to find a
job.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen warned in a speech last week that the country's efforts
to attract foreign visitors ran the risk
of swamping traditional culture and increasing the likelihood of sex tourism.

DEBAUCHERY

Article 8:

Any person who commits debauchery acts onto a minor person of below 15
years old, even if there is consent from the concerned minor person or if upon buying such
minor person from somebody else or from a head of the prostitutes, shall be subject to
punishment from ten (10) to twenty (20) years in prison. In case of not giving up, the
maximum punishment term shall be applied.

The court may, in addition to the above principal punishment, apply a
sub-punishment by restriction of the civil rights and non-authorization of residence.

Updated 07-2002:
More confusion about age of consent in Cambodia. We documented 16 as the age of
consent ... but now with the various media cases, we are seeing more and more references
to the age as 15.

"The other, a doctor, was released in 1995 after serving six months on charges of
engaging in sexual activities with boys. The age of consent in Cambodia is 15. The doctor
said he was a target of homophobia." From Ananova:
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_577735.html and
http://www.sexcriminals.com/news/12699/

And again:
Why was the arrest of Norman Robinson (page 14) not used to illustrate the problem of
police corruption (page 1) in the last edition of the Phnom Penh Post? Why are you using
the phrase 'under 18' to imply children? In Cambodia sex with a 16-year-old is not
illegal. In Cambodia voluntary prostitution by a 16-year-old is not illegal. Cambodian
culture and the Cambodian National Assembly define, in relation to sex and prostitution, a
minor as under 15 years.

In the Law on the Suppression of the Kidnapping and Trafficking of Human Persons (commonly
known as the Debauchery law) article 3 prohibits kidnapping for forced prostitution of
persons of any age, and article 8 prohibits sex with minors under 15. Mr.
Robinson's actions fall under neither category. Could Mr Robinson have been prosecuted for
violating a UN convention? The answer is no for two reasons: firstly, charging any person
with violating any UN Convention lacks legal grounds as UN Conventions are not penal laws
with penalties (human rights expert Phnom Penh Post 30 April 1999)-persons can only be
prosecuted for contravening a relevant domestic law with penalties applicable to that
convention; and secondly, UN conventions allow for cultural diversity, so that Cambodia
can define, for sexual and prostitution purposes, a minor as under 15. The UN Convention
on the Rights of the Child (1989) Part 1, article 1 states "for the purposes of the
present convention, a child means every human being below the age of 18, unless under the
law applicable [in Cambodia the Debauchery Law] to the child majority is attained
earlier." Child prostitutes are therefore persons under 15. The
Phnom Penh Post should, when talking about such matters, use the same statistical
groupings as the WHO and UN Population Fund which classify children as 0-14 years, after
all the Phnom Penh Post should reflect Cambodian values and not those seen in a Christian
newsletter.
(Source: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/TXT/letters/L1022-2.htm)

PHNOM PENH: An elderly Japanese tourist has "married" as many as 60 Cambodian
girls, police said Tuesday. Haruo Gyokumoto, 68, is believed to have wedded the girls in a
series of unregistered and therefore unofficial religious ceremonies since the mid-1990s,
according to police in the northern tourist town of Siem Reap.

"The weddings are very small and not registered with the authorities. But they take
photos and dress up and serve a feast for family members and for ancestral spirits,"
Siem Reap immigration police chief Major Um Heang told AFP. "So far nobody has
complained. Not the girls or their families.

So we have no plan to arrest him, although we have advised him that as a tourist he needs
to watch out for his safety." Um Heang said most of the girls were from poor rural
families who were paid monthly allowances by the Japanese man, who regularly travelled to
the country on a tourist visa. "Our investigations have found he has 'married'
between 40 and 60 Cambodian girls, most under the age of 18," he said. "The man
has a Cambodian assistant who at the end of each month goes around to the girls and their
families and gives them a salary of between 30 and 100 dollars each."

He said that since the marriages were unofficial they did not break Cambodian laws against
polygamy. Police said many of the girls and their families knew of each other's existence
and there were no issues of consent involved.

There is no age of consent in Cambodia, except in cases of sexual assault where
the penalties are higher if the victims is under 16. Rights groups and the UN's
protection and monitoring unit here are trying to have minors defined as under the age of
18, in line with international conventions on the rights of children.
Japanese embassy officials in Phnom Penh could not be reached for comment. (AFP)
Posted on 2001-03-21
Back to [Asia Human Rights News - 200103 MAR 2001] (Source:
http://www.ahrchk.net/news/mainfile.php/ahrnews_200103/1720/)

Minors and the Law (from:
http://www.ngoforum.org.kh/Woking_Group_Issues/Civilsociety/rape_report_2001.htm)

Nowhere in the Criminal Code is the word minor defined. Under the CRC, anyone
under the age of 18 is a minor. While the age of consent to sexual intercourse is not
defined in Cambodian law, there are several other Cambodian laws that support the age of
majority to be 18. Labor law confuses the matter by providing three different ages of
majority (12, 15, 18) depending on the labor situation.

The matter is further confused by section 2 of article 42 of the Criminal Code that
provides double the penalty for anyone who sexually assaults a person under the age of 16,
and a human trafficking law provides another age benchmark by doubling the penalties for
trafficking victims under the age of 15.

Article 33 of the Criminal Code does not specifically recognize statutory rape (consensual
sex with a minor under a specified age). Many countries recognize that children below a
certain age (usually 15 or 16) are unable to make a mature and informed decision about
sexual activity, and make it illegal for anyone to engage in sexual activity with them,
even if the children go along with it. Because there is no protection for the young and
vulnerable, some young teenage girls become mistresses to rich and powerful men. Children
are forced into prostitution and their services openly sold, often to regional
businessmen, foreign sex tourists and government officials. Cambodia is unlikely to have a
law stating the legal age for sex while government officials and rich and influential men
in Cambodia continue to have sex with young girls and virgins.

While article 42 of the Criminal Code provides for longer penalties for offenders who are
found guilty of indecent assault against someone less than 16 years of age, this does not
apply to the rape article, which specifically excludes indecent assault (sexual activity
which does not involve penetration). This is a glaring inconsistency, as rape is a more
serious violation than indecent assault.

Only section 3 of article 42 mentions consent. It imposes double the penalty of indecent
assault on the person found guilty of procuring, enticing or leading away for the purposes
of prostitution, or who exploits the prostitution of a minor with or without consent. This
section has been interpreted and used against the trafficking of minors in the past, until
the National Assembly passed the Law on the Suppression of the Kidnapping and
Trafficking/Sale of Human Persons and Exploitation of Human Persons in January 1996
(the trafficking law). While it is arguable that the trafficking law has
repealed section 3 of article 42, this section is still used in respect of sexual
offending by the Cambodian. This results in several problems, which are discussed at
length in Annex 1 of this report.

Article 8 of the trafficking law, which states that regardless of consent, acts of
anacha with a person under the age of 15 are punishable by 10 - 20 years in
prison, is more akin to a statutory rape law. However, using article 8 for that purpose is
not legally sound. The word anacha has been translated in the English version
of the law as debauchery, but it is not defined in any Cambodian law. Its
meaning in Khmer is too broad to have a precise legal definition.

Additional Update 07-16-2002

[EDITOR: The below article contains the quote shown. We can't determine the
source.]

"Under Cambodian law, those under the age of 18 cannot consent to sex."

Updated 03-2001:

Article 42: indecent assault

1. Any person who sexually offends another, unconsenting, person of
either sex by touching, caressing or any other sexual act not involving penetration, is
guilty of the misdemeanor of indecent assault and shall be liable to a term of
imprisonment of one to three years.

2. If the indecent assault is accompanied by fraud, violence or threat, or if it is
committed by any person with authority over the victim, or if the victim is under
16 years of age, the duration of these sentences shall be doubled.

3. Any person who procures, entices or leads away, for purposes of prostitution, or
exploits the prostitution of a minor, even with the consent of that minor, shall be liable
to a term of imprisonment of two to six years.

New Source: Cambodian Law
http://www.bigpond.com.kh/Council_of_Jurists/Judicial/jud005g.htm

Updated 01-2001:

From a Reader: "If the age of consent in cambodia is 15 then
how can they have a trial for this American?"

PHNOM PENH, Dec 18 (AFP) - A US tourist has been charged with the rape and indecent
assault of a child prostitute in Cambodia in a rare instance of the courts here
showing a willingness to tackle such a case, officials said Monday.
A Phnom Penh court charged James Curtis Parks, 57, from Hawaii, with the
rape of a 15-year-old girl in a hotel room, a charge he denied saying he was
impotent and had been teaching meditation when police arrived.

"I am a good man. I came here to teach meditation, English and photography. I have
been helping her," Parks, a freelance
photographer, told reporters who visited his jail cell Monday where he can be held
for up to six months pending trial.
"How can I have sex with her? I have been unable to have an erection for seven
years," he added. However, police and court officials questioned why the pair
were naked when the hotel room was raided on Wednesday last week. "We charged
him with rape and indecent assault late Friday," said Phnom Penh's deputy
municipal court prosecutor Ngeth Sarath.
"I don't know if this is the first such case, but I don't remember any others,
so it is quite rare," he said. A Cambodian woman who allegedly acted as a pimp
was also charged with debauchery. If convicted, Parks faces a maximum 10 years
in jail, while the woman whose charge also relates to an offence of human
trafficking faces 10 to 20 years.

The case follows the sentencing in November of British teacher John Keeler, 55, to
three years in a Cambodian jail for making a video of four girls ranging from eight to 10
years old lifting their dresses and fondling themselves. Rights workers said they
hoped that case marked a turning point in Cambodia, where lax laws and an
unwillingness to disrupt tourism have seen the country develop a reputation as a
haven for foreign paedophiles.

There is no legal age of consent defined in Cambodian law, but indecent
or sexual assault is punishable by one to three years in jail. That sentence
is doubled if the person assaulted is under the age of 16, according to United
Nations legal experts here. Rape, although rarely prosecuted, is punishable by five to 10
years with no age issues involved.

Rights groups and the UN's protection and monitoring unit here are currently trying
to have minors defined as under the age of 18 in line with international conventions on
the rights of children. Current legislation dates back to the early 1990s when
Cambodia was administered by a UN transitional authority. A leading child advocacy
group said the court had initially been
reluctant to charge Parks as the girl confessed to being a prostitute and had been
paid 30 dollars for sex. "The court did not want to charge the man because they
said the girl was not a virgin and had not been forced into sex. But under pressure
from us they have at least charged him with rape and indecent assault," said
Yim Po, chairman of the Cambodian centre for
the protection of children's rights. He said the girl was now in the centre's care
and would be taught some basic reading, writing and life skills and helped to
find a job. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen warned in a speech last week
that the country's efforts to attract foreign visitors ran the risk of swamping
traditional culture and increasing the likelihood of sex tourism.

Child abuse is believed to be widespread, although there are no statistics on the
extent of
the problem. Child prostitution remained a serious problem. Although sexual intercourse
with a minor under the age of 15 is illegal, child prostitution was common, due in part to
a
cultural preference for sex with virgins. There were reliable reports that children were
kidnaped in several provinces and forced into the illegal sex trade, both in Cambodia and
abroad.

Research Links:

All about Cambodia and related links: http://www.cambodiajournal.com/

Suffer the little children -- http://www.canoe.ca/OttawaChildren/home.html

Constitution of Cambodia: http://www.embassy.org/cambodia/cambodia/constitu.htm
and http://asiarecipe.com/camcons.html

Source:
U.S. Department of State
Cambodia Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1997
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, January 30, 1998.
http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1997_hrp_report/cambodia.html

Friday June 5 1998 Cambodia
Fewer foreigners visiting for child sex
The number of foreigners visiting for sex with children has fallen due to the economic
slump and the country's reputation as a dangerous destination, rights advocates said. But
non-governmental organisations monitoring the flesh trade said the grim economic climate
within the country had led to a surge in domestic trafficking of women and children. Yim
Po of the Centre for the Protection of Child Rights said there had been a dramatic
decrease in sex tourism since July last year, when political instability erupted into open
warfare. "Before July, sex tourism was flourishing. Every day you would see hotel
mini-buses filled with foreigners in Phnom Penh's brothel districts," he said.

"But now very few people from the region are coming to Cambodia to do business."
He said several high-profile arrests of suspected paedophiles, and reports of
robberies and kidnappings, had also contributed to a reduction in sex tourism. But
World Vision's Children's Programme manager, Laurence Gray, said rising unemployment was
leading more families to sell their children into the domestic sex trade.

"A virgin will fetch up to US$1,000 (HK$7,700) in Phnom Penh, and in a poor country
that's a huge amount of money," he said. Corruption made policing "virtually
impossible". "With unemployment comes alcoholism and gambling and we know of
many cases where children have been used as security against money borrowed by their
parents from brothel owners." Mr Gray said up to 100 girls - some as young as 11 -
were sold into sexual slavery each month.

Around The Globe: Cambodia vows to crack down on sex tourism (Sept 27, 2000)

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia plans to launch a new campaign against sex tourism by posting signs
at hotels,
guesthouses and nightclubs warning against sex with children, tourism minister Veng
Sereyvuth said according
to Reuters.

"Sex tourism - no", he said in an emotional speech to reporters after the
morning session of a tourism industry
conference in Phnom Penh. "Cambodia should prevent this trend. The country has more
than 1,000 temples and
more to be discovered...We don't need the sex industry to attract tourists," he said.

(Archived from http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/270900/detFOR07.asp)

Cambodia to Expel Foreign Sex-Crime Suspects?
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia plans to expel foreigners suspected of sex offences,
regardless of whether they are found guilty of any crime, a local newspaper reported
Tuesday. A blacklist of all foreign sex-crime suspects would be drawn up, the
Cambodia Daily reported, and those on the list would be denied a new visa when their
current one expired. ``When they finish their visa they will have to leave our
country and not be able to return,'' Minister of Women's Affairs Mu Sochua told the
newspaper. The blacklist will be distributed to Cambodian embassies overseas and at
all border-crossing points, she said,
adding that Cambodian courts were not properly dealing with foreign sex offenders.
The newspaper quoted an unnamed human rights worker as saying the planned
blacklist was a ``travesty for the rule of Cambodia'' because targeting people who are
simply suspected of committing a crime is an abuse of human rights. Cambodia
is regarded as a major center for child prostitution, but suspects are often freed by the
courts amid suspicions of corruption.

[Phnom Penh Daily: 7.9.00; Bangkok Post: 15.9.00; The Nation: 27.9.00] - AS Cambodia
struggles to recover from three decades of genocide and war, a vicious combination of
poverty, corruption and global tourism has produced a new threat -
sexual exploitation of children and women. In September, the government announced it would
launch a new campaign against sex tourism by posting signs at hotels, guest houses and
nightclubs to shame sex tourists.

"Sex tourism - No," Cambodia's Tourism Minister, Veng Sereyvuth said in an
emotional speech to reporters at a recent tourism-industry conference in Phnom Penh.
"Cambodia should prevent this trend. The country has more than 1,000 temples
and more to be discovered We don't need the sex industry to attract tourists."

Veng also called on other ministries to help eradicate Cambodia's image as a sex tourism
destination. "We also will have a policy to withdraw the licence of any
business-owner who is involved in the sex industry," he added.

Children's rights exports have reported an upsurge in child-sex cases as the number of
tourist arrivals has increased. "The sexual exploitation of children is a very
serious problem in Cambodia, and its perpetrated by both Cambodians and foreigners,"
said Chanthol Ung, executive director of the Cambodian Women's Crisis Centre. "But
we're noticing the trend of more and more foreigners coming here to sexually exploit
children."

At risk are girls as young as ten years old brought in from the countryside or smuggled
across the Vietnamese border to service a seemingly insatiable sex industry centred in
Phnom Penh. "Children are often forced into prostitution by their parents or tricked
into the trade by pimps," said Chanthol Ung, adding, "Vietnamese girls are
brought here under similar circumstances."

Internet websites and pornographic magazines that advertise child sex in Cambodia as cheap
and easy ensures a constant stream of customers for child prostitutes, explained Yim Po,
executive director of the Cambodian Centre for the Protection of
Children's Rights.

"The child sex trade spills over from Thailand Cambodia is becoming a favourite
destination for both sex tourists and paedophiles," said Sebastian Marot, coordinator
of an organization that assists Phnom Penh's 10,000 street children. "Cambodia is one
of the hunting grounds of European, Asian and Australian paedophiles, and every kind of
exploitation imaginable is going on."

Cambodian police and courts are generally unable and unwilling to take effective action
against foreigners accused of sex offences. Suspects are often freed by the courts amid
allegations of corruption. According to a recent Cambodia Daily report,
however, the government plans to draw up a blacklist of all foreign sex-crime suspects and
to expel those on the list, regardless of whether they are found guilty or not. "When
they finish their visa, they will have to leave our country and will not be able to
return," Minister of Women's Affairs Mu Sochua told the newspaper. The blacklist
would be distributed to Cambodian embassies overseas and at all border-crossing points,
she said, adding that Cambodian courts were not dealing properly with foreign sex
offenders.

In a separate development, two Taiwanese men and a Romanian woman have recently been
arrested, facing human trafficking charges that carry up to 20 years imprisonment. The
Taiwanese are accused of luring local women into false marriages
and then selling them into prostitution in their country. The Romanian woman is alleged to
have done the same with seven women from Eastern Europe and bringing them to Cambodia for
vice. Six local women, who acted as procurers for the Taiwanese, are also in detention.
However, a Cambodian court released the suspect Chinese-Canadian hotel manager, who has
been charged of holding the European girls in a forced prostitution ring catering to rich
businessmen and high government
officials.

The release of the hotelier brought condemnation from human rights workers. Marlene
Alejos, an investigator for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the UN would
press to see that all involved in human trafficking were charged.
Meanwhile, the Cambodian police vowed to continue the crackdown against human traffickers
indefinitely as the country had become a focal point for the illegal trade in women.

(Archived from http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/nf65.htm)

Cambodian Marriage And Sexual Behavior
As a general rule, a high values is placed on proper standard of sexual behavior and on
premarital chastity. This is very true in the rural
areas, but in urban society, it applies nearly solely to the girls, who are required to be
above all reproach in this matter. Premarital
activities by girls is condemned, but more men experience premarital sexual relations,
especially in the cities where prostitutes are found.
In the rural areas, virginity in a bride is mandatory; in the cities attitudes about this
tend to be less rigit nowadays. In some villages,
a brige who gets pregnant even by her betrothed, is considered the shame of the family or
as an evil person who will attract bad fortune or evil
spirits over all the family, and therefore she is ostracized from the family.

Marital fidelity is mandatory, too, but practically only for women. Polygamy is
still legal but is diminishing significantly because of economic pressure. However,
government officials and the rich individuals these days can have up to dozen of
mistresses and sex slaves. In the rural areas, girls have to observe a strict code of
conduct, the custom that is losing its influence in modern society. For instance,
at the age of 12, there is the ceremony of "Kor Sak", or cutting the top
tuft of the hair; it is the puberry rite symbolizing the passage from childhood to
adolescence. The onset of menstruation, ritually marked by the practice known as
"entering the shade", is also disappearing.

The young Cambodian children are not permitted much knowledge of sex, because the parents
feel that too much knowledge can lead to desire and
eventually to trouble. In practice, Cambodian girls receive little information about sex
until teh last minutes of the night of the wedding feast, when the bride's parent and the
"Acha" take the bride aside and explain the basic facts of sex.

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